What are interrupts?, Operating System

Assignment Help:

What are interrupts?

Interrupts are in some ways the mainly "famous" system resources, ever since almost everyone who's used a computer has heard of them even if they don't know what they are. An interrupt is essentially what it sounds like a message from one part of the computer to another (normally to the system processor) that tells it that it needs to stop what it is doing and perform something else instead. An IRQ is an interrupt request as well as is the name for the actual signal that is used when peripheral requests can interrupt of the processor.

Interrupts play a major role in how the processor performs input/output processing and interfaces with every peripheral in the computer from the mouse and keyboard to the hard disk and modem

The processor is a highly-tuned mechanism that is designed to (basically) do one thing at a time. Though we use our computers in a way that requires the processor to at least appear to do many things at once, if you have ever used a multitasking operating system like Windows 95, you've completed this; you may possibly have been editing a document while downloading information on your modem and listening to a CD simultaneously. The processor is capable to do this by sharing its time among the various programs it is running and the different devices that need its attention. It merely appears that the processor is doing many things at once because of the blindingly high speed that it is able to switch between tasks.

 


Related Discussions:- What are interrupts?

Thread safety, What does it mean for something to be thread-safe? By saying...

What does it mean for something to be thread-safe? By saying that X is thread-safe, we mean that if multiple threads use X at the same time, we don't have to worry about concurrenc

What are the advantages of multi threading?, What are the advantages of mul...

What are the advantages of multi threading?  Multithreading a code can have several advantages. Improve application responsiveness --Any program in which var

Explain memory management using buddy sustem, MEMORY MANAGEMENT USING BUDDY...

MEMORY MANAGEMENT USING BUDDY SUSTEM Here we are dividing the memory as powers of two as well as we are selecting the space which is smallest but large enough to hold a process

Catalogue the design goals of windows xp, Q. Catalogue the design goals of ...

Q. Catalogue the design goals of Windows XP. Answer: Design goals comprise security and reliability and Windows and POSIX application compatibility with high performance and ex

What is a semaphore, What is a semaphore? A semaphore 'S' is a synchron...

What is a semaphore? A semaphore 'S' is a synchronization tool which is  an integer value that, apart from initialization, is accessed only by two standard atomic operations; w

Keeping track of free memory, How do we keep track of where the free pieces...

How do we keep track of where the free pieces of memory are? One idea is to maintain a set of linked-lists of free space; each linked-list will store free chunks of some given size

Briefly discuss on i/o hardware, Briefly discuss on I/O hardware? A con...

Briefly discuss on I/O hardware? A controller is a collection of electronics that can operate a port, a bus, or a device. A serial-port controller is an easy controller. It is

Write a short note on memory management, Write a short note on Memory manag...

Write a short note on Memory management. Memory management includes reallocating and allocating the memory space. The kinds of allocation of memory FIXED PARTITIONING

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd